Terrorist deployment of chemical and/or infectious biological agents as weapons of mass destruction threatens the welfare of the human populace. Public concern has grown, especially in our nation, as terrorist uses of biothreat agents, such as Anthrax, become reality. Nightmare images of tens of thousands of infected and dying innocent victims strike fear in the hearts of nearly everyone. Biological and chemical warfare is significant, not only in lives lost, but also in the cost to the US economy. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that the loss of 100,000 lives will have a $29 B economic impact. The mass destruction potential of Biological Warfare Agents (“BWAs”) and Chemical Warfare Agents (CWAs) is thought by many to be comparable to or even greater than that of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons have the potential to affect a finite area, albeit very large, and the use of such weapons is immediately obvious after the fact. BWAs and CWAs, on the other hand, have virtually no boundaries and have the potential to spread silently and unchecked through populations far from ground zero. Likewise, technology to rapidly detect and quantify very low levels of radioactive contamination is widely available. Unfortunately, such technology for BWAs and CWAs at similar levels is not definitive, not widely available and in many cases, is not very rapid.
The psychological impact of this type of threat is also very significant. The public is becoming increasingly aware of new, emerging pathogens. Fears over the unseen nature of BWAs and CWAs make for a very effective terrorism weapon in and of itself. In addition to perception, there is a very real threat due to incredible advances in biotechnology. It is now possible to alter the most virulent bacterium or virus and to increase both its pathogenicity and resistance to conventional therapy. The molecular biology revolution has now been underway for more than three decades, and the sheer number of persons with technical expertise to potentially create such weapons of mass destruction has consequently increased. In this age of advanced global travel, the likelihood of rapid dissemination of any type of BWA worldwide in a very short period of time is high, and the general public is well aware of this fact.
Conventional means of identifying pathogens using biology tools such as specific antibodies, genetic markers or propagation in culture are fundamentally slow and require hands-on manipulations. Furthermore, as new BWAs and CWAs are engineered, these conventional tools are likely to become less and less effective. As the use of BWAs and CWAs by terrorists becomes a reality, there is an increasing need to develop tools that can rapidly and accurately detect and classify these agents at a molecular level without coming into contact with them. These tools are needed to help expand our understanding of the biological and chemical basis of such warfare agents and the potential impact on the human body. Furthermore, the knowledge gained through such molecular analyses helps identify new targets for therapeutic and preventative agents.